UPDATE, Gwyn Topham: 16:20 We have been sent an interesting update on the cycling figures from Green mayoral candidate Jenny Jones. Although Boris Johnson has been keen to push his image as a champion cycling in London, the trend for safer cycling has reversed since he came into office. The TfL figures show, I calculate, a casualty for every 58,000 cycling trips in 2007 to a rate of about every 49,000 in 2010. Last year looks even worse, with deaths and serious injuries up from 358 to 407 for the first nine months recorded so far in the capital. While we don't have the numbers for the first three quarters of 2011 to make the same per trip comparison, the bare figures so far in London suggest it is set to be the worst annual toll since 2000.•The data has been added to our spreadsheet

Are our roads really getting safer? The official statistics out today from the Department of Transport show that, for a lot of people, they are. Except for cyclists, that is.

The drop isn't huge - but it is there. People killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads are by 2% to 6,630 in the third quarter of 2011. If you look at all casualties on the road, that's still 52,490 people hurt or injured - but it's down by 5% from the same period last year when it was 55,105.

Transport correspondent Gwyn Topham says the government will be relieved.

obviously good news in itself, but after two quarters of worsening safety - which might be dismissed as a statistical blip - a third set of bad results might have had fingers pointing. After steady decline of deaths over many years, the toll had started to climb. Without any overarching reason, this coincided uncomfortably with the accession of the coalition government and a transport secretary in Philip Hammond who pledged in Clarksonian terms to end the "war on motorists". The mood music around road safety seemed to have changed: Hammond mooted the raising of the motorway speed limit and abolition of annual MoTs. The latter plans were dropped yesterday by his successor Justine Greening.

The most notable increase is deaths and serious injuries to cyclists - an 8% year on year rise that, as a new Times campaign today demands, deserves real attention.

The data shows that cyclist's deaths have gone up to 970 killed or seriously injured in the three months to September 2011 - compared to 905 the previous year. Interestingly, overall cyclist casualties have stayed static - up only 0.1%. But at a time when all road casualties are going down, this stands out. And it's still 5,470 people.

We've also extracted the figures for all road casualties by police force - and added in the populations so you can compare each area properly. We don't have the latest cyclist figures by force yet as these are estimates.

NOTE: Each police force area is assessed on the number of accidents received for each month & information is considered 'complete' if at least 95 per cent of the total expected number are present. Outstanding forms may still be with police forces, local processing agents or subject to further checks at the Department for Transport. Metropolitan police includes City Of London